The two Free Practice sessions ended with Morten Bermingrud setting the fastest time in the first one and “Stecka” Walfridsson in the second runnings.

The opening two Free Practice sessions of the 10th and final round of the 2012 ERC have been completed shortly after 13.00h. The weather here at Buxtehude is very uncertain, we already had some decent sunshine this morning to dry up the track. However, soon after the second runs had been started heavy rainfalls were pouring down from the dark grey sky over the Estering to change the venue back to that muddy place it has often been since seeing its first ERC round ever way back in 1973.

In the first practice runs it was Norwegian Morten Bermingrud (C4) who set the fastest time, closely followed by his Citroën make-colleagues Frenchman Davy Jeanney (C4) and Briton Liam (DS3). Fourth and fifth fastest were the Renault campaigners Norwegian Mats Lysen and Swede “Stecka” Walfridsson (both Clio Mk3), while “already 2012 Euro Champ” Russian Timur Timerzyanov drove his Citroën DS3 to the sixth fastest time.

In the Super1600s class Finnish youngster Teemu Suninen made his team principal Jussi Pinomäki proud by setting the fastest time here, ahead of teammate Norwegian Andreas Bakkerud and Czech Václav Veverka sen. Set Promotion boss Pinomäki, however, is not here in Buxtehude, but replacing Andréas Eriksson as OMSE team manager during the Las Vegas Global RallyCross Championship round in the USA. Eriksson himself is replacing his Swedo-Finnish friend Marcus Grönholm in the penultimate 2012 GRC round, as “Magic Marcus” has still no Okay from his doctors to race again after his bad crash in the X Games 18.

Among the TouringCar drivers the fastest first practice time went to Norwegian Jan Gabrielsen (Mazda RX-8). Second fastest was Swede Roger Enlund (Ford Fiesta Mk6) and third position on the completed time keepers’ list shows Irishman Derek Tohill (Ford Fiesta Mk7).

In the second Free Practice the weather changed from first heavy rainfalls to no more rain later on. However, the muddy track hampered all competitors and the times were slower as in the first runs. When all particants had been back to the paddock the fastest drivers of the three categories where Swede Stig-Olov Walfridsson in SuperCars, Czech Zdeněk Čermák in Super1600s and Norwegian Jan Gabrielsen in TouringCars again.

More images will be uploaded all weekend here: http://erc24.com/archives/8030